Gay & Lesbian community responds to Gov. Gibbons veto

Monday, Governor Jim Gibbons vetoed SB 283-the Domestic Partner Bill that Revises provisions governing the rights of domestic partners. SB 283 would establish a Domestic Partner registry through the Secretary of State’s office where couples, whether same-sex or opposite-sex, could register their relationships with the state and enjoy the protections granted to spouses under Nevada Revised Statutes. State Senator David Parks introduced the bill in an effort to provide same-gender and opposite-gender couples the legal protection and obligations for one another not otherwise allowed under current law in Nevada.
Gibbons writes that he vetoed the bill based on his opinion that it violates Section 21 of Article 1 of the Nevada Constitution. He surmises the will of the voters expressed in Question 2-which amended the Nevada Constitution in 2002, to define Marriage as, “Only a marriage between a male and female person shall be recognized and given effect in this state,” without providing any basis for his opinion. Legal opinions expressed by experts in legislative testimony during hearings on SB 283, and the opinion issued by the Legislative Council Bureau contradict his reasoning. Gibbons also claims in his letter that couples can contract privately through “estate planning…living wills..and amendments to leases and deeds of trust.” “If legal contracts were as simple as Governor Gibbons claims, more people would enter into them-same-gender couples or otherwise. The process of drawing up legal documents is expensive, time consuming and easily challenged in court. There is no guarantee that these contracts will stand up in court. LGBT couples seek only to provide security for their partners and families and that the decisions they make for one another will actually be binding,” said, Jennifer Bolton, Center Board Vice President. See Gay & Lesbian community responds to Gov. Gibbons veto
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Backers Of Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Face Backlash

Since California voters passed a ban on gay marriage, some supporters of the measure have found themselves squarely in the bull’s-eye of angry gay rights activists.

It’s no secret who gave money for and against the controversial amendment to the state’s constitution, known as Proposition 8. California’s secretary of state publicized the lists of contributors, which were picked up by local media and Web sites.

And in the aftermath of a contentious campaign, protests followed. In Los Angeles, would-be patrons of a popular Tex-Mex restaurant were greeted by furious protestors like John Dennison.

“El Coyote — millions in gay margarita money funding hatred,” Dennison yelled during the protest. “Boycott El Coyote!”

The restaurant owner’s daughter, Margie Christofferson, a faithful Mormon, had made a modest $100 contribution to the “Yes on 8″ campaign — and the restaurant’s gay patrons, like Edward Stanley, felt betrayed.

“I won’t be eating here,” Stanley said.

Business dipped about 30 percent at the height of the protest, and it still hasn’t returned to pre-protest levels. Several members of the restaurant’s staff — including many of its gay employees — have seen their hours cut back in response. And Christofferson, who managed the restaurant, has resigned.

Others Feel The Heat

In Sacramento, the owners of Leatherby’s Family Creamery found themselves part of the backlash when The Sacramento Bee printed the list of contributors. Dave Leatherby, a devout Roman Catholic father of 10, says he was responding to a direct request from his bishop to give generously.

“We gave $20,000 for Yes on Proposition 8,” he says.

And once that was known, retaliation was swift. “We soon started getting very nasty e-mails and letters and phone calls by the hundreds,” he says.

Leatherby says he was mystified, because the Creamery had always enjoyed good relations with the gay and lesbian community.

And he says something interesting happened when demonstrators arrived outside his shop: Business went up, instead of down. “The day they picketed us, there were about 15 picketers, and that day we had people waiting two hours to get into our restaurant for four or five hours,” he says.

Not every backlash story ends that way.

Richard Raddon, director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Scott Eckern, director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento, are devout Mormons. Both made contributions to Yes on 8, and both got demands for their resignations from gay rights protestors. They quit so their organizations wouldn’t face further controversy. Ironically, the film festival has been instrumental in introducing works by gay and lesbian filmmakers to a broader audience — and the musical theater included works by gay playwrights and composers.

See Backers Of Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Face Backlash
NPR

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200 Supporters of Gay & Lesbian Community March in2009 Los Angeles Chinatown New Year’s Parade

Contingent Organized by API Equality-LA Draws Record Participation

Los Angeles – On Saturday, January 31, 2009, a record 200 people joined the API Equality-LA contingent in the Golden Dragon Parade in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, one of the city’s most popular community event. Saturday marked only the fourth time in the parade’s 110-year history that a contingent representing and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members of the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community has participated in the parade.

“We expected a strong turnout after all of the energy in our community since the November 2008 election, but we were absolutely astounded to welcome 200 participants – nearly three times as many as last year!” said Ericson Herbas, API Equality-LA steering committee member and one of the organizers of the contingent. “Particularly meaningful for all of us, we were also joined this year by same-sex couples who had been able to legally marry before November 2008.”

Wearing bright red t-shirts, the large contingent marched proudly through the streets of Chinatown, carrying banners displaying the six colors of the rainbow. The rainbow is commonly used to represent the pride of the LGBT community and was chosen by the API Equality-LA contingent to also represent the diversity of the coalition’s membership and supporters.

“Our participation in the lunar new year parade each year sends a powerful message of pride, diversity and inclusion,” said Marshall Wong, API Equality-LA co-chair. “Saturday was a wonderful way to enter the Year of the Ox. It is said that the Ox is a sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Fortitude and hard work describe exactly what we need to win back the freedom to marry for the LGBT community. Today we took a short stroll around Chinatown but we’re committed to the long march to full equality.”

The contingent was led by a drum troupe playing traditional Korean drums, comprised of volunteers from the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA). And bringing up the rear of the API Equality-LA contingent was Danza Méxica Cuauhtemoc, a cultural troupe performing traditional Aztec dances, accompanied by Aztec drums and dressed in traditional Aztec clothes and tall feather headdresses.

“API Equality-LA was thrilled to be able to include both Korean and Aztec drums as well as Aztec dancers,” said Eileen Ma, another API Equality-LA steering committee member and organizer of the contingent. “For us, the drummers and dancers reinforced our message of pride in our diversity as a community.”

The diversity of the marchers was also evident in the organizations that officially joined the API Equality-LA contingent, many of whom proudly displayed their own organizational banners as part of the contingent. In addition to API Equality-LA, other organizations who participated in the contingent included: Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC); Asian Pacific Health Care Venture (APHCV); Asian Pacific Islander Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (API PFLAG); ); California Faith for Equality; Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) of San Gabriel Valley; Equal Roots Coalition; Gays United Network (Gays U.N.); Japanese American Citizens League (JACL); Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA); Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC); Love Honor Cherish; OCA-Greater Los Angeles; South Asian Network (SAN); and Asian Pacific Islander Pride Council, which includes Asian American Queer Women Activists (AAQWA), Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT), Chinese Rainbow Association, Gay Asian Pacific Support Network (GAPSN), and Satrang.

(photo credit Ericson Herbas) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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New Website Brings Gay Voices Together

On Top Magazine, OH Charlotte Robinson, the woman whose interviews with prominent gay and lesbian leaders we have been following closely here at On Top Magazine over the past year, has launched a new website dedicated to housing those interviews.

The new site, called OUTTAKE VOICES and located at voices.outtakeonline.com, brings together diverse voices from all corners of the gay and lesbian community. See New Website Brings Gay Voices Together

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Obama Appoints First High-Level Gay Official For Environmental Council

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has selected a deputy mayor of Los Angeles to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, transition officials said Wednesday.

Nancy Sutley is the first prominent member of the gay and lesbian community to earn a senior role in the Democrat’s new administration.

With many of his top White House and Cabinet posts filled, Obama now is focusing on fleshing out his natural resources and environment team, and could formally introduce his choices for interior secretary, energy secretary and environmental protection agency chief within weeks if not days.

Two transition officials disclosed Sutley’s selection on the condition of anonymity because Obama had not yet made the announcement.

See Obama Appoints First High-Level Gay Official For Environmental Council

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Activists open gay meeting center

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning Valley’s gay and lesbian activists have opened a community center here that takes its name from a watershed event in the emergence of the gay and lesbian movement almost 40 years ago.

The center, known as the Stonewall Community Center and located at 1523 Poland Ave., conducted its grand opening and holiday party Saturday.

“It’s really a milestone for us because, for so long, there has been no sense of community,” among local gay and lesbian people, said Brian Wells of Youngstown, co-chairman of the Mahoning Valley Pride Coalition, which operates the center.

“This really provides everyone with a place to go and a place to gather and to be able to develop a sense of community,” Wells said. “We want to be able to provide them with a place to call home,” he added.

The coalition had previously rented small quarters at a North Side church, but the new center, which occupies donated quarters, is the first true gay and lesbian community drop-in center in the Mahoning Valley, Wells said.

See Activists open gay meeting center
Youngstown Vindicator, OH